Liu Xue Xia, who lives in Xi’an County, is 56 years old in this year. She has got the edema all over the body with difficulty in opening the eyes due to palpebral edema and hard urination and relying on the emictory everyday since she is very young. She partook in the training class of the Health Qigong Ba Duan Jin held by the activity station of the Health Qigong in the stadium in Xi’an County with the intention of having a try advised by friends.

Can the exercise of the Health Qigong Ba Duan Jin help her recover from the disease? Liu Xue Xia had the green and gray facial expression, bloating body and edema in her limbs when she took part in the training class. All her symptoms are manifestations of heart and kidney yang deficiency in the opinion of Chinese medicine as the heart is in charge of all the vessels and the running condition of the blood in the vessels can be embodied by the luster and color of the face just as it is said in Chinese medicine that the vessels is dominated by the heart with facial expression as its outer manifestation. Her green and dark face with edema indicates the insufficiency of heart yang of which can’t propel the Qi and blood, fluids to cause the blood stasis and water retention. In addition, the main function of the kidney is in charge of the water and Qi, storing the essence. The essence of the kidney can be divided into the kidney yin, which can nurture and enrich all the Zangand Fu, and kidney yang, which can warm and invigorate all the Zang and Fu. The weakness of kidney yang will be likely to cause the heart unable to be warmed and nurtured and result in the blood stasis and magnificent yin-cold inside the body that will affect the regulation and balance of Sanjiao for the water and fluids metabolism and result in the dysfunction of water passage and gladder, difficulty in micturition and water and fluids retention in the muscles and skins manifested as the edema. What’s more, the kidney is the foundation of inborn constitution and the spleen provides the material basis of the acquired constitution. The spleen should be warmed by kidney yang and the kidney essence should be nurtured by the essential substance produced by the spleen. There is physiological promotion and nurture each other between the spleen and kidney and pathological interaction. Abdominal distention and pain, difficulty in micturition and bloating body indicate that her heart yang is insufficient accompanied with the decline of kidney yang and spleen deficiency. The effect of the routines in the Health Qigong Ba Duan Jin such as holding the hands high with palms up to regulate the internal organs, holding one arm aloft to regulate the functions of the spleen and stomach, moving the hands down the back and legs and touching the feet to strengthen the kidneys can ameliorate her body symptoms.

The disease of Liu Xue Xia has obvious amelioration after the long-term exercise of the Health Qigong Ba Duan Jin combined with the medication. Why can the Health Qigong Ba Duan Jin help her recover? We will extrapolate in details the mechanism of rehabilitation from three actions of lifting the heels, relaxing the ankles and tapping the floor in the routine of raising and lowering the heels to cure diseases of the Health Qigong Ba Duan Jin.

All toes gripping the floor can stimulate the yin and yang meridians in the toes and regulate the activity of corresponding Zangand Fu and improve their functions as the toes is the intersection of foot yin and yang meridians. For example, the foot Taiyinspleen meridian originates from the Yinbai acupoint in the end of the first toe and runs upward into the abdomen subject to the spleen and associated with stomach by relative collaterals. The spleen has extensive function in the process of the metabolism of water and fluids including that the spleen distributes the essence and transport upward to the lung, transforms and transports the water and fluids in all the tissues and organs of the body. The spleen locates in the middle Jiao and is pivot of the ascending and descending of Qi activity and water and fluids metabolism. That the kidney is in charge of the water means it can dominate and regulate the water and fluids metabolism. In this aspect the kidney yang is the key. The kidney promoting inspiration indicates that the kidney can help the lung finish the deep inspiration. That the air inspired by the lung is brought into the kidney has the important significance for the respiration of the body. There is mutually beneficial relation in the aspect of the water and fluids metabolism and respiration between the lung and kidney. That the water and fluids are hard to transport and discharge due to the spleen deficiency will cause the retention inside the body and varieties of diseases will ensue as the water and fluids metabolism depends on the transportation of the spleen just as it is recorded in the plain questions• discussions about the pathologies all those symptoms manifested as dampness, edema and distension are due to the spleen deficiency. In the routine of raising and lowering the heels to cure diseases, the first toes gripping the floor can activate and exuberate the Qi of spleen yang and enhance the function of transporting and transforming the water and fluids through stimulating the jin acupoint of the spleen meridian and Yinbai, etc. The long-term exercise of this routine can regulate the function of Zang Fu and blood and enhance their function of modulation and balancing in water and fluids metabolism.

The exercise of tapping the heels can shake the visceral organs, improve the function of Sanjiao dredging the water passage and transporting the water and fluids. Sanjiao is one of six Fu organs with the function of dredging and regulating the water passage and transporting the water and fluids. It is divided into three parts according the location that is upper jiao over the diaphragm containing the heart and lung, middle jiao between the diaphragm and umbilicus containing the spleen and stomach, liver and gall bladder, the lower jiao below the umbilicus containing the kidney, bladder, large and small intestine. The water and fluids metabolism is one complicated physiological process and series of physiological function of multiple organs involved just as it is recorded in the plain questions• further narration of the meridians: after the drink and food are taken in the stomach and the essence is extracted by the spleen and then transported to the lung of which can dredge and regulate the water passage and transport the water and fluids downward to the gladder and turn into the waste. In this way the water and essence are distributed all over the body. That is to say, the intake and distribution and circulation of the water and fluids must be accomplished through the smooth Sanjiao, which is helpful for the lung, spleen and kidney to transport and discharge them. The repeated heels tapping in the routine of raising and lowering the heels to cure diseases can promote the Qi and blood circulation and improve the function of Sanjiao dredging the water passage, transporting the water and fluids, assisting the gladder discharging the urine as it can make the visceral organs regularly shake up and down in the thorax and abdomen under the condition of relaxation of all the body.

The vibration of heels tapping can stimulate the Du meridian and regulate the balance of yin and yang and get the effect of health and rehabilitation. As all know, the Du meridian starts from the uterus and runs out of the perinaeum, upward the backbone to the neck and gets to the frenulum of superior lip. Its branch diverges from inside of the backbone and connects with the kidney. Therefore it has close relation with the brain, marrow and kidney. The Du in Du meridian is to dominate and supervise by word and has the function of governing and dominating all the yang meridians that is generalized as the whole governor of all yang meridians and the sea of yang meridians as it runs through the back of the body and intersects with the foot yang meridians and yangwei meridian in many times. The nerve dominating the visceral organs stems from the backbone, the spinal cord and the brain nerve are the nerve center of nerve of human body, all the visceral organs are affected by the nerve according to the theory of the modern medicine. The strength starts from the heels and transports upward through all the joints in the lower limbs and gets to all cones of the spines and brain in heels tapping. The transmittance of the strength can vibrate the spine and the brain and stimulate the central nerve. It can stimulate the Du meridian and the kidney as the transmittance and vibration acts on the Du meridian itself and the branch of the Du meridian gets to the kidney according to the theory of Chinese medicine. Therefore the heels tapping can enhance the Qi and blood circulation, improve the function of visceral organs, regulate the balance of yin and yang and strengthen the constitution of the body through the nerve and meridians.